This is part four of the Wild Ride Focus series, where I focus on certain aspects or characters of the 2008 Wild Ride through my photos and the occasional interview.

EMBrs In The Wild

On every Wild Ride, we get many Emerica fans joining us. Some just come and visit us at a demo, some camp out with us for a couple of days, and others go hardcore and will stick with us for the entire trip. Mentions go out to Jesse from White Chocolate on in Kansas and the Japanese trio Hiro, Tatsumi (see image below) and Hiruki who followed us everywhere we went.

Even more special is when you come across EMB members on the road. I had to pleasure to meet fellow EMBrs Joey (twazzer), who joined us on the whole trip with his sidekick Cody, and Ian (hiimianimataurus), who was able to spot me at a crowded signing at Hotline in Virginia. Joey was kind enough to sit down with me for a bit so I could get to know him better.

Ok, so tell me your real name.
Joey.

How long have you been a member of the EMB?
Since August '06?

That's a long time. I've seen there's people on there that have been a member for a longer time even.Colin's been there since '03, and Tao...

'03? Are you sure? Maybe since we switched up the format in '05, some of the join dates got lost.
You mean when you switched from the Blabs to uh...

I think so.
Since day one of the message board, Colin's been on there.

That's dedication right there.
[Laughs] Yeah.

But he gets rewarded too.
You mean the Hsu's?

That's what he got last time. That's the only thing he ever got, really. Why do you keep going back to the EMB?
Because I get bored and I need something to do. I like about ten other people on there a lot.

Just ten?
Maybe a little bit more, but they're never all on at once. If they are, it's pretty rad.

Would you name names?
Yeah, like um - john... colin... other colin... other john... all those type of dudes.

How many EMBers have you met in real life?
Just Ian (see image below). His name on the site is hiimianimataurus.

Did he get that name from Louie Barletta's intro [in Bag of Suck]?
Yeah.

That's what I thought.
It's funny, because Louie isn't actually a Taurus.

Well, I think he actually says "I'm a tourist", not "I'm a Taurus".
Oh! [laughs]

He probably doesn't know that.
Don't break it to Ian. He'll be heartbroken.

I was actually gonna ask him the same question. He's gonna know now.
[laughs]

How many times have you been on the Wild Ride?
This is the first time. It's very... everyone is super nice and the hospitality is amazing. Like here, right now, it's great.

Have been talking to the team a lot?
Yeah, I've been talking to Leo and Suski a lot, mostly because they're just really low key and hanging out.

I think they're also more approachable than someone like Andrew is.
Andrew seems more approachable to me than Braydon.